Thursday, August 10, 2017

Helpcode is an Italian charity that provides education for disadvantaged children, mainly in Africa. It recently launched a new visual identity, developed by Futurebrand Italia.

The new logo features a symbol that is both a smile and two people, conveying how happy children are important to the future of their communities. It is supported by the tagline "The Right to Be a Child".

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Jersey Strong is fitness gym in New Jersey with eleven locations. It was known Work Out World until last week when it launched a new name and visual identity, developed by Carbone Smolan Associates.

The previous generic name was swapped out for one that expresses the "pride, strength, and sense of community that defines the brand". The logo and other aspects of the identity programme use bold and strong typography to further convey this pride.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

The amount of music videos shown on Music Television (now known only as MTV) has famously declined over the last few decades. In many regions, MTV does however operate a series of so-called "Flanker Channels" that do mostly play music videos under names such as MTV Base, MTV Dance, MTV Classic, MTV Hits, MTV Rocks, MTV Live and MTV Music. The full range of channels is available in the UK, while the offering differs in other countries. The flanker channels were recently given new looks, created by Los Angeles-based animation and design studio Laundry in close collaboration with MTV World Creative Studio.

The brightly coloured graphics tie the flanker channels together through a common visual language that also allows them to affirm their own identities through genre-related imagery. The package was built around the idea of MTV as a "virtual reality planet where each sub-channel is a genre-specific continent – inhabited by party animals" that appear in the animations. The basic channel logos did not change, but were given new and more varied colours.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Adobe's recent announcement that they were ending support for Flash caused me to look through a bunch of old Flash-based portfolio sites before they become inaccessible. One of those came from the Swedish package design agency Amore and I though I'd share some elements from it here for posterity.

The portfolio page was from late 2004 and features work produced before that, mostly from the early to mid-'00s. This includes two can designs for Cider and Liten Ljus Lager that have become modern classics for their graphic simplicity.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

ArianeGroup is a joint venture between Airbus and the French company Safran with activities in aerospace and defence, it's most famous product probably being the Ariane rocket launchers. In was known as Airbus Safran until last May when the name was changed to take advantage of the company's most famous product. The rebranding effort was headed by Carré Noir.

The new identity wants to transform Ariane from a primarily technical and scientific enterprise to a more human one, while conveying the company's mission as "space enablers". This is done through an iconic symbol of space communication, a satellite orbiting a planet, which in this case is one of Ariane's launchers orbiting earth.

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

The telecoms giant AT&T is slowly building a media empire through DirecTV and the ongoing purchase of Time Warner. As part of its integration, many DirecTV properties have had the AT&T name and logo slapped on them. Last month the turn had come to Root Sports, a set on regional sports networks owned by DirecTV that were renamed AT&T SportsNet. The new look was designed by Troika, who also created the Root Sports brand back in 2011.

The new look is built around a concept called "Fan Connection" with heavy focus on home teams in a new more realistic graphics package. The logo has been designed to fit with the AT&T brand, including its signature blue colour.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Dandelion is a new company recently spun off from X (formerly Google X), the experimental subsidiary of Google/Alphabet. It offers geothermal heating and cooling to homeowners in north-eastern United States. The company was announced on July 6, and the logo above above was a part of the announcement.

Monday, July 31, 2017

Apetina is a brand of "white cheese", generally of the variety that most people call "feta". It is owned by Arla Foods and sold in several European countries. Last month it launched a refreshed look in the UK, designed by Bulletproof.

Feta cheese is typically seen as a salad cheese, but it can be used for cooking as well, which is highlighted by the new packaging. The word mark was freed from its crescent-circle and simplified to increase its impact. Focus was moved to the diamond in the 'A' which is also used to enclose cooking in progress on the packages.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Back in May we reported on NBCUniversal introducing a new logo for women's channel Oxygen as part of its transformation into a "true crime" channel. The new logo and accompanying graphics package was designed by New York-based Trollbäck + Company, who recently revealed their participation in this project.

Building on Oxygen's goals and research, the aim of the redesign was to create a "holistic true crime experience" for an engaged audience through graphics that "elevate the network's crime offerings and powerful storytelling across all platforms". The package makes use of crime imagery, starting with the 'crime scene' tape for the logo. But the overall design is more feminine than typical crime branding and takes its inspiration from contemporary news typography.

Monday, July 24, 2017

This is probably the most belated logo round-up ever, considering July is almost over. That's mostly because June was yet another incredibly busy month with well over fifty new logos worthy of inclusion.

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

SŽDC (short for Správa železniční dopravní cesty) is the state-owned railway infrastructure company in the Czech Republic. Last month, it revealed a new corporate identity which is yet to launch. It was designed by Studio Marvil.

Marvil won the assignment in competition with three other major Czech design studios. Their suggestion replaces a complicated and outdated logo with a simple design featuring a new symbol. It features three tracks that form the letter Ž, which is the first letter in železnice which means railway in Czech.

The rollout will take some time and will apparently not start until 2018.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Edenred is a French company that calls itself "world leader in transactional solutions", its best known product being the Ticket Restaurant meal vouchers and cards available in many countries under differing names. It was known as Accor Services until 2010 when it was spun off from Accor. Last month, it launched a new visual identity, developed by Paris-based Royalties.

In addition to replacing the old corporate logo, the new mark will also be used for the companies other services including Ticket Restaurant. This makes the company name much more visible to consumers.

The old red dot used by Ticket Restaurant was quite recognised, almost having the status of currency for some people. The new logo takes its inspiration from the old red dot, but makes it more simple and "digital".

Monday, July 10, 2017

Fox Crime is a thematic channel from Fox Networks Group devoted to the crime genre, available in several European countries including Italy and Portugal. The Italian channel was recently given a new look by Buenos Aires-based Inland Studios that is due to roll out in other countries.

Staying clear of cliche imagery, the new look has a more conceptual approach to the crime genre based around the idea of "deconstruction". This is manifested through organic dots and line, most importantly a glitch effect that is used for the logo and typography.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Openbank is a online bank from Spain's Banco Santander group, founded way back in 1995. It operated as somewhat of a sub-brand of Santander until last month, when it launched new corporate identity, developed by Saffron Brand Consultants.

The brand essence has been summed up as "Distinctly Simple", which is what online banking is supposed to be. The bank has discarded the Santander symbol for one of its own, a 'key' monogram made up of the initials O and B.

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Back in May, the Syfy channel announced its completely redesigned logo. At the time we only had the logo itself and a few variations to glance at. The new look launched on June 19, and a few days ago the agency behind the rebrand – Loyalkaspar – also revealed its case study, giving us a complete view.

Where the previous look was bringing Syfy in a more general direction with less emphasis on science fiction, the new package brings the channel back to its roots but tries to also confidently affirm sci-fi as a mainstream genre. This is apparent in the redesigned logo which is more clearly "sci-fi" than its predecessor.

Loyalkaspar's graphics package is "editorial first" with a heavy emphasis on typography, including two custom made typefaces. The type is rigorously applied as part of flexible system that works across many platforms.

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

The French company known as DJiT, "the world’s number 9 mobile music app publisher", changed it's name to MWM last week, on June 22. The new visual identity was developed by Dragon Rouge.

The company started out with the music mixing app Edjing and has since developed further apps, recently reaching a combined total of 100 million downloads. The new name is a reflection of that growth. The name MWM creates a neat and versatile "oscillating logo", expressing "perfect synchronization of music, the world and media". It is supported by an eclectic universe of beating graphics.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

VRT (Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie) is the public broadcaster for Flanders, the northern half of Belgium. Last week, on June 22 it presented a new corporate identity. According to press release, it was developed by an internal team that collaborated with Pentagram and something called "Mechelse Today".

According to VRT, "the new expressive logo will allow VRT to evolve digitally". The VRT is unusual among the European public broadcasters in that its own brand has mainly been used on a corporate level, with individual channel brands communicating to the public. This will apparently not change.

While the new logo had a sort of official launch last week, it was first adopted back in January for the services VRT nu and VRT NWS. The latest announcement made it official for the entire company.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The logo round-up is a bit late once again, but its is a big one with well over fifty new logos introduced in May. This includes new looks for Hawaiian Airlines, some American cable networks like HLN and Syfy, major sports leagues, game maker Ubisoft and a many more.

Since 2012, SVT has used graphics built on colourful templates created by Trollbäck + Company. The new look takes a very minimalist direction with barely any elements other than the simple channel logos and the corporate typeface. The new idents are similarly minimalist, with the SVT1 idents featuring simple shots of places around Sweden where people are watching television and the SVT2 idents featuring relevant still images. Other than the thematically differing idents, there's no real attempt to differentiate the channels with graphics or colour, which does perhaps reflect an "on demand first" programming strategy where individual channels are less relevant.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Helsinki is the capital of Finland. On June 1, the city unveiled a new brand identity to coincide with a reorganisation of the city government. It was designed by local studio Werklig, who were appointed last August.

Up until now, Helsinki hasn't a unified visual identity with many departments veering off with the own logos. The new logo is to do be used by all department. It is based on the city's crest, but has stripped out all heraldic imagery, leaving only actual shield shape with the name "Helsinki" on it. It is used in conjunction with wave backgrounds in various colours inspired by Helsinki landmarks.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Chef is a brand from Italian dairy company Parmalat for cream and various cream-based food products, such as dessert creams and cream sauces. Earlier this year, it was given a new look by FutureBrand Italia.

This is a very subtle update that keeps all essential elements of the previous packaging, but gives them a sophisticated update to infuse additional symbolism.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Alight Solutions is an outsourcing business for human resource services and benefits administration, serving many large companies. It was recently spun off from Aon plc and sold to private equity. Last week, it emerged as an independent company with an identity created by Prophet.

Prophet worked on all aspects from strategy to design over three months. The business that Alight is in is simultaneously getting more technologically advanced and more people-focused. The new identity should reflect how Alight is "reimagining how people and organizations thrive"

Chillizet is a Polish radio network that plays "chill out" music such as soul and jazz. It was known as Radio ZET Chilli until a few weeks ago when the current name was adopted, along with a new visual identity by BNA.

The new modern and purely typographic logo is designed to reflect the station's urban and eclectic nature.

Monday, June 12, 2017

Mupy is a classic Brazilian soy beverage, introduced to the country in 1977. Last month, a new look for the product was announced, designed by FutureBrand São Paolo.

Mupy is widely known by its plastic bag packaging and FutureBrand took advantage of this by turning the bags into friendly and playful characters. The company was founded by a Japanese immigrant and the packaging is somewhat inspired by a Japanese style of illustration.

MDR Sputnik is the youthful radio channel from MDR,the public broadcaster for central eastern Germany. It is apparently a sort of spiritual successor to DT64, the youth radio network in East Germany. On June 3 it launched a new logo, created by Scholz & Friends who also created a full corporate identity programme for all of MDR last year.

Sputnik's logo has taken an evolutionary approach since the network was founded in 1993. This is the first time Sputnik introduces a completely new logo in the form of a face that is said to reflect "young spirit" in the brand.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Foxtel is Australia's leading pay TV company, operating both the continent's satellite TV platform and some cable networks. It is co-owned by Murdoch's News Corp and telco Telstra. This week, on June 6, it introduced a radically different corporate identity to coincide with the presentation of its revamped Internet service Foxtel Now. The new identity was developed by a design agency called Maud.

The new look is part of a shift to a more inclusive brand, announcing that "Foxtel is for everyone". The old Foxtel brand was heavily associated with the aggressive Fox TV brand and satellite pay TV doesn't fit all budgets. A friendly brand is better aligned with a service offered a lower price points.

Seabrook is a British brand for crisps. This month it was given a new look by Robot Food to help them stand out in a very crowded market.

The new packaging builds on its predecessor, but breaks category norms to differ more from the competition. The new packs are dominated by thick 'crisp-shaped' stripes against a white background with a refreshed logo on top.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

The Indian government has made great efforts to move the country from old paper-based currency to digital payment systems. One of those these new systems is Bharat QR, developed by Visa, Mastercard and National Payments Corporation of India. Back in February it revealed its corporate identity, developed by Landor Associates.

At the centre of the new logo is a combination of a QR code the rupee symbol, showing "a harmonious marriage between digital technology and physical money".

Monday, June 5, 2017

IZZ Zorgverzekering is a Dutch provider of health insurance. I wont attempt to understand the Dutch healthcare system, but they are somehow related to another VGZ, another player within Dutch health insurance. On May 31, they adopted a new logo, designed by Teldesign, who also created the new look for VGZ back in 2011.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Hong Kong Tramways operates the tram system in Hong Kong. Last week it launched a friendly new symbol, designed by local agency Stepworks.

The old logo was reportedly introduced in 1974 when Hong Kong was still under British rule. The new one replaces the abstract "track fountain" with a more literal image of a friendly tram. A press release further explains how the new symbol reflects iconicity, care, cleverness and convenience.

Monday, May 29, 2017

Earlier this month, the private German TV channel Tele 5 revealed a funky new logo.

Tele 5 is independent of the two major private television groups in Germany, but can't really compete on the same terms. It's schedule is therefore mostly oriented to older cult classics. The new "retro-modern" logo appears to be a sort of affirmation of that position.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Genesys is a provider of costumer relations solutions, calling itself "the global leader in omnichannel customer experience and contact center solutions". Yesterday, it launched a new corporate identity, developed by Landor Associates.

Having traditionally focused on call centre infrastructure it has recently expanded into more modern solutions for costumer experience. The new symbol is inspired by the "adaptability and fluidity of human conversation", a representation of how talking to a business should feel like talking to a person.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Eniro is a Scandinavian search company, built around the Swedish phone directory and related services. Earlier this month it presented a new logo.

The new logo was apparently revealed with along with the company's annual report. The old logo was designed by Dolhem Design and introduced in 2010. There's not that much information available about the new one.

Monday, May 22, 2017

April was unusually busy this year, with around 45 new logos collected for this round-up. The Huffington Post shortening its name to Huffpost was arguably the most publicised change, but there were several other reasonably noteworthy changes.

Friday, May 19, 2017

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, generally known as MassMututal, is an American insurance company. At the beginning of this week it launched a new visual identity, designed by The Working Assembly, with strategy by Johannes Leonardo.

The new position highlights the fact that MassMutual is a mutual insurance company, "celebrating the gift of interdependence". The five dots in the new symbol represent the company's community of costumers.

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Eredivisie is the highest division in Dutch football. Last week, the league revealed a fresh new logo, developed by Dog and Pony. It's due to launch at the start of the 2017-18 season.

The new circular 'E' was inspired by the circle at the centre of a football pitch. The simple combination of circles and a sharp angle allows impactful use of the logo in animations and other situations.

Conmebol is the amusing name of the governing body for football in South America, founded in 1916. Yesterday, May 17, the organisation revealed a new logo in Gran Asunción, Paraguay.

The new logo replaces a literal and complicated badge with a football, the continent, the flags of all the members and an abbreviation. At the centre of the new badge is a the continent with a fingerprint, representing the "audacity and passion of all teams in all competitions". The fingerprint is contained in a crest with a football behind it.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Ziggo Sport is a sports channel operated by Ziggo, the dominating cable network in the Netherlands. Last week it launched a new look with new on-air graphics. Creative studio Cape Rock helped launch the channel in 2015 and they've returned this year to give it a new look.

The new graphics system was designed to be more closely aligned with Ziggo's brand and the enjoyment it aims to brings to its costumers. One element that runs through the package is the use of irregular triangles called "fractals", used a background patterns in most graphics and a elements to highlight energy and motion in the idents.

Monday, May 15, 2017

NBCUniversal made two major rebrand announcements in one day last week, announcing new logos for both its Oxygen and Syfy networks. For Syfy, this is part of "a strategic point of view focused on a renewed commitment to the genre and fandom at large".

The old logo was introduced in 2009 when the Sci-Fi Channel "controversially" changed its name to something trademarkable as it wanted to expand beyond the sci-fi genre. The pure and clean logo was a break with the sci-fi clichés that preceded it.

The new logo is decidedly edgier and can be presented as both a stacked block and a horizontal wordmark. It was presented with an animated gif showing how it can be combined with various sub-brands. No design credit was provided for the new logo, which launches on June 19.

NBCUniversal have recently hinted that it was about overhaul its women's channel Oxygen to focus more on crime programming. Last week, on May 11, it fleshed out these plans by announcing new programmes from the likes of Nancy Grace and Dick Wolf (the creator of the show Law & Order).

It also unveiled a new logo as part of its transformation into a "fulltime crime destination for women". No credit or rationale was provided. The new look launches this summer.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Ö1 (short for Österreich 1, "Austria One") is the flagship radio network for Austria's public broadcaster ORF, airing a mix of classical music, jazz, news, features and other public radio programming. The network is in a process of renewal with a new schedule and as part of these changes it launched a new logo at the beginning of May.

The new more abstract logo was designed by graphic designer Yasmin Sowa, who worked with ORF's design team lead by art director Michael Hajek. One objective in the redesign was to keep it familiar, but also mark a change. This achieved by keeping the familiar diamond shape, but radically changing the '1'.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

International Floorball Federation (IFF) is the governing body for floorball, a sport played on a small rink where a tiny ball has to be hit into goals using sticks. Last week, the organisation unveiled a new corporate identity developed by Czech agency Dynamo Branding & Design.

The new logo has been stripped to the basics, the initials and a rings of ovals resembling the edges of a floorball. Unlike its predecessor, the new logo will also be used with the various events organised by the IFF.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

The State Painting Collections of Bavaria (Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen) take care of the art collections owned by the Bavarian state. These have been collected over 500 years and include work from the 14th century until today. The organisation includes five art galleries in Munich and 14 associates galleries around Bavaria. Last month they adopted a new visual identity, developed by Peter Schmidt Group's Munich office.

While the galleries themselves are well known, their connection to a larger organisation wasn't public knowledge. Peter Schmidt Group created an umbrella system based around a common symbol to link them together. The new symbol is a monogram that combines a B (for "Bavaria") with a P (for Pinakothek, a German word for art gallery), with a clear separator that faintly resembles the corner of a picture frame.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

HLN (formerly CNN Headline News) is CNN's sister channel in the US, offering news in the day and various "true crime" shows at night. It has had a hard time defining itself, but has recently decided to focus on stories relevant to middle America with the tagline "News that hits home". Perhaps as a part of this strategy, it introduced a new logo yesterday (May 8).

The HLN logo was redesigned as as recently as 2015. The new logo is a simpler rendition of the network's name, dropping the speech bubble holding shape. On screen it appears in a blue square.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Hawaiian Airlines is the leading airline in Hawaii, operating flights to major destinations in the Pacific, including mainland United States and Asia. This week, on May 1, it unveiled a new corporate identity, developed by Lippincott. This is part of an effort to expand the airline by opening up new routes and introducing new aircraft.

The previous identity had plenty of goodwill, so this is an iterative update that builds on its predecessor. The airline's symbol – the "Pualani" (flower of the sky) – has been freed from the flower holding shape and thus features more prominently in front of a sun on the tail fin. The livery is finished with a silver maile lei wrapping the fuselage. The friendly look reflects the welcoming "aloha spirit" associated with the islands.